Late autumn in black and white

Autumn forest, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Decay, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Leaf forms, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Almost all leaves have fallen to ground from trees. It is becoming darker every day, both because days are getting shorter and because there is not much to reflect light. Here are three photographs from today, appropriately in black and white.

Types of photographers (and about visions)

Radial, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Curve, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Stump, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

TOP had recently an interesting (alhtough rambling) posting about photography:

I presented a diagram that looked something like this: [...] Where green was professional or commercial photography, orange was editorial photography or photojournalism, and blue was art photography and academic photography. A hand immediately shot up from the back of the room: "And what kind of photographer are you?" Without thinking, I replied, "I'm a writer."

I'm not a photographer in this sense either, just a person with a hobby, doing other things to earn a living. And I don't want to spoil my relation to photography with too much seriousness.

Speaking of seriousness, recently I read "The Prophet Muhammad: A Biography" by Barnaby Rogerson. It was a revealing book about the effect of visions. Compared to this, we all are amateurs. You don't need to own a camera (or even to be able to read and write) to make changes in the world.

Speaking of visions, Mark Hobson apparently doesn't like TOP much, "since it went to really focusing on gear." There is something here, but true to his style Hobson really underlines his point.

On the other hand, I can't help liking his photographs, although sometimes I have a nagging feeling of them being produced in an "industrial" process. Is there really something under the surface?

An evening with no clouds

Forest line, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Finally we had a day (or at least an evening) with no clouds. It has been overcast for so long that it was almost like a new world when the blue of the sky was visible. And we had a nice sunset as well. A great day.

As I wrote here earlier, I won a company-wide photography competition (it is a small company...). And the price was excellent: a recent book about owls (in Finnish) by Heikki Willamo. It is a first-rate photography book (and not "industrial" in the way some nature photography books tend to be). Highly recommended.